Financial Transparency Coalition

AFRODAD (African Forum and Network on Debt and Development) has released two reports entitled “What has tax got to do with Development: A Critical look at Mozambique’s and Zimbabwe’s tax systems” The link between development and taxation has come up in various fora, as development practitioners and activists discussed methods of mobilizing domestic resources to finance development, and attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Tax revenues are, on average, lower in developing countries than in rich countries; the average tax revenue in African countries was approximately 15% of GDP in 2008. Hence the argument is that if developing countries...

WASHINGTON, DC – Global Financial Integrity’s Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs, Heather Lowe, will deliver remarks at the Brazilian Council of Economic and Social Development’s International Seminar on Fiscal Justice on Wednesday, August 10, 2011. Ms. Lowe’s remarks will be part of the seminar’s fiscal policy, productivity and competitiveness panel.

My report for the TUC on corporate taxation in the UK, published today, highlights an issue not picked up by the press, but for me of some considerable significance. That is the decline of corporate reporting for activities in the UK – less than 20% of the largest companies in the UK now reporting in this way compared to 50% a decade ago. As I note in that report:

In 2000, half the sample of companies surveyed published information in their published accounts on their results arising in the UK. Usually this separate...

The Latin American country is wealthy, but the extreme gap between rich and poor causes a multitude of problems Isabel is four years old. Her belly and ankles are swollen and she walks as if it hurts a little bit. Her family, who live in eastern Guatemala, have not had the means to feed her properly, so she is being treated for kwashiorkor – acute malnutrition. Even though it is classified by the World Bank as a middle income country, the level of inequality in Guatemala is such that almost half its children under five ...